Car For Friend Under Rs.8 Lakh (On-Road). Main Use: Highway Drives.

[icecool]

My friend is looking for a car within 8 lakhs on road, bangalore.
His major criteria are:
- the best highway car in this price range, as he does go on long drives every weekend (suspension stability, no break down, high speed cruising, solid confident brakes, safety features) - This is the MAIN criteria
- his daily commute will we 40 kms (30Kms on >= 80 kmph speed - hosur road)
(this makes 2000-3000 kms a month including weekend long drives)
- but the car should also be agile in city traffic and should not look/feel like an elephant
- safety features like air bags is a must. ABS an added welcome
- fuel type - preferred petrol but if diesel is silent and less to mantain, then ok with it
- a driver's car (fun to drive)
- low cost on pocket for maintenance after purchase
- plans to sell off in 5 years max

My suggestions / shortlisting are :
1. Fiesta Classic 1.6 Duratec Titanium Petrol
2. Swift ZXi / ZDi
3. Honda Amaze 1.2 VXMT i Vtec (Petrol)
4. Grand Punto Emotion 1.4 Petrol
5. Volkswagen Polo SR 1.2 Petrol
6. Volkswagen Polo Highline 1.2 (Diesel)
7. Hyundai i20 Asta 1.2 (petrol)
8. USED Honda City (2008-2013)
9. Nissan Sunny XE Petrol
10. USED Tata Manza Diesel EX ( 1-2 years old)

Also I do have a strong support for JAZZ, and if it gets launched by May/June, he is ready to wait to try that out as well.

Your comments here would be much appreciated to help in his buying.

 

[anshuman8]

Re: Car for friend within 8 otr. Main use highway drives.

As per the criteria he should go for a new diesel car since running is upward of 2000 kms a month.

At 8 lakhs budget, you can look for

Swift D
Punto D
Vista D
Micra D
Rapid/Vento - D (Used)
Manza D (New)
Linea D (USed)

 

[TurboZone]

Re: Car for friend within 8 otr. Main use highway drives.

My pick
if its petrol
Honda Amaze 1.2 VXMT i Vtec (Petrol)

diesel
Punto 90Bhp (may be out of budget)
Swift ZDI
Ford classic 1.4 duratorq

 

[icecool]

As per the criteria he should go for a new diesel car since running is upward of 2000 kms a month.

At 8 lakhs budget, you can look for

Swift D
Punto D
Vista D
Micra D
Rapid/Vento - D (Used)
Manza D (New)
Linea D (USed)

He doesnt mind paying extra for petrol. he loves the responsiveness of petrol engines and their low noise level. He doesnt like the noisy diesel and the no response below say <2000 rpm. I have tried convincing him for diesel, and he has mentioned he would test drive and buy only if it is quiet.

Ford classic 1.4 duratorq

I personally have driven only the petrol version of classic and am a die hard fan. Is diesel also as good to drive?

 

[vijay]

Re: Car for friend within 8 otr. Main use highway drives.

swift as well as dzire zdi variants with all the safety features would be in his asking price range with diesel engine.

 

[pravin1987]

Re: Car for friend within 8 otr. Main use highway drives.

most of the current generation diesels are refined and fun to drive. example: polo and swift diesel. the ford fiesta diesel is a good driver's car. honda brio has a top class refinment. but the suspension isn't great. even small undulation are felt in the cabin. swift and ritz suits you from maruthi. any of these car from maruthi will suit most of the criterion listed.

 

[anshuman8]

Re: Car for friend within 8 otr. Main use highway drives.

I second Pravin , the NVH levels in my Manza are quite low (2012 model). The newer ones are more silent. In fact if AC is on at idle position you can hardly hear the engine, except mild vibrations.

Punto NVH is not so good, Swift and Dzire it is good. All these cars use same engine. Ford, Nissan, VW and Skoda diesels are quite noisy.

For any sedan, running 2000 km per month he may have to pay Rs 5000 more for petrol.

 

[karthick raja]

Re: Car for friend within 8 otr. Main use highway drives.

It should definitely be a diesel, considering 2000+ Kms/month and low maintenance cost then
My recommendations :
1. Punto 90hp variant
2. Swift ZDi

If used ones, then
VW Vento Diesel CL/HL

If you dont care about runnning costs then
1. Used Fiat Linea T-Jet
2. Used Honda City

Btw, most of the modern diesel engines are quite improved in terms of NVH levels so think twice before going for petrol for this kinda running.
Ask your friend to test drive diesel ones before deciding.

 

[Gurrala74]

Re: Car for friend within 8 otr. Main use highway drives.

My choice for him would be

1. Ford classic(petrol/diesel)
2. Manza diesel
3. New Honda city petrol

 

[bReeze AkA brIo]

Re: Car for friend within 8 otr. Main use highway drives.

1) Ford Fiesta Classic

2) VW Polo

3) Honda Amaze

 

[sambit_mech]

Re: Car for friend within 8 otr. Main use highway drives.

My suggestions / shortlisting are :
1. Fiesta Classic 1.6 Duratec Titanium Petrol
2. Swift ZXi / ZDi
3. Honda Amaze 1.2 VXMT i Vtec (Petrol)
4. Grand Punto Emotion 1.4 Petrol
5. Volkswagen Polo SR 1.2 Petrol
6. Volkswagen Polo Highline 1.2 (Diesel)
7. Hyundai i20 Asta 1.2 (petrol)
8. USED Honda City (2008-2013)
9. Nissan Sunny XE Petrol
10. USED Tata Manza Diesel EX ( 1-2 years old)

Since high way drive is more and any machine may betray you at anytime, I would suggest to be within Maruti/Tata/Hyundai.

Maruti cars hold their value but Tata does not when it comes to resale. Hence new maruti or old Tata. Hyundai cars are not VFM and the maintenance is also at higher side. Hence, I personally never recommend Hyundai cars.

Looking into the monthly run and just 5 yrs of ownership plan, diesel is the only choice. No petrol please since it's very tough to sell a petrol car except maruti 800/Alto/in that sense small cars. My personal take is with nano diesel introduction, it'll be very tough to sell any petrol car after 5 yrs from now.

With the savings and higher resale value, I think your friend won't worry about diesel if and only if NVH is low and cheap to maintain.

It is true that even today's diesel cars are slightly costlier to maintain and have higher NVH than their petrol counterparts. But high monthly running and higher resale value do offset them. And, regarding NVH, let's talk about very low NVH.

Fiat engines are good and hence I would suggest you for Swift Desire (new) or Tata Manza (old).

Tata cars are no more full of niggles and dependable. With the VFM factor, Tata Manza should be the choice if you are not let down by people saying "Tata Cars!!!!"

It seems everyone here is pushing for Diesel cars, it being value for money. But as I mentioned earlier also, my friend doesnt mind spending extra on petrol , but he needs a good driver's car. Diesel doesnt have power below 1500/2000 rpm, and then turbo kicks in. Even i feel that annoying. petrol engines are linear and responsive.

Frankly I am also not much educated / fan of diesel engines. Can someone explain me better about driving experience in bumper to bumper traffic?

When do you need Turbo? I think at higher speed to accelerate faster. Also, I don't get the fun of driving without turbo kick-in at higher speed.

BTW, for bumper to bumper traffic, no difference between Petrol and Diesel.

Just TD swift desire and tata manza, no one can complain about NVH. If you really need zero NVH diesel, go for Chevy Sail. I don't recommend Chevy cars since they may out-of-business any time (what GM did with Opel). Also, they come up with new model before ther older models are sold in good volume. That will increase the spare cost going down-the-line due to lack of economies of scale. Chevy cars have poor resale value and hence it makes more sense to go for used Chevy cars. You won't get Chevy Sail used since it's relatively new launch. But a TD shall make you love Chevy Sail diesel.

 

[Prads]

Re: Car for friend within 8 otr. Main use highway drives.

His major criteria are:
- the best highway car in this price range, as he does go on long drives every weekend (suspension stability, no break down, high speed cruising, solid confident brakes, safety features) - This is the MAIN criteria
- his daily commute will we 40 kms (30Kms on >= 80 kmph speed - hosur road)
(this makes 2000-3000 kms a month including weekend long drives)
- but the car should also be agile in city traffic and should not look/feel like an elephant
- safety features like air bags is a must. ABS an added welcome
- fuel type - preferred petrol but if diesel is silent and less to mantain, then ok with it
- a driver's car (fun to drive)

The above highlighted parameters seem to scream VW Polo but the 3 cylinder Diesel engine is very noisy. But everything else seems to have the boxes ticked.
You can look at the petrol should have some good discounts around.

Since his commute is on Hosur looks like service wont be a bother,but how customer friendly the service center is another question.
But considering he will need to see service center only once in 6 months the car can be his main focus point.
Since its not that big,should be fine in traffic also

 

[icecool]

Re: Car for friend within 8 otr. Main use highway drives.

If used ones, then
VW Vento Diesel CL/HL

If you dont care about runnning costs then
1. Used Fiat Linea T-Jet
2. Used Honda City
.

Isnt VW Vento expensive to mantain and spare parts expensive?

Also regarding running costs, for linea I may accept it will be high because of spare part costs and maintance, but Honda City doesnt look to belong here. I believe that is one of the most easy on pocket cars. isnt it?

 

[icecool]

It seems everyone here is pushing for Diesel cars, it being value for money. But as I mentioned earlier also, my friend doesnt mind spending extra on petrol , but he needs a good driver's car. Diesel doesnt have power below 1500/2000 rpm, and then turbo kicks in. Even i feel that annoying. petrol engines are linear and responsive.

Frankly I am also not much educated / fan of diesel engines. Can someone explain me better about driving experience in bumper to bumper traffic?

 

[anshuman8]

@icecool,

This is not the case for diesel cars. In new gen cars with VGT the turbo kicks at 1500-1800 RPM. Having said that the torque being higher driving in traffic or pulling up is not an issue at all.

In case of my Manza I can pull up easily in the B2B traffic , sometime without using accelerator also (only clutch release).